It’s no secret that many internet marketers, small businesses, and entrepreneurs are still on the fence when it comes to using Google + on a regular basis. Some seem to think it is not worth their time investment, while others speak volumes about how effective of an online tool it is to promote your business.

Google Announces Google My Business

With the recent announcement of Google My Business, there is no doubt that if you have not used Google + in the past, now is the time to get onboard. In the past, many companies were skeptical of using Google + because of the confusion with Google + Business Pages, Google Places and Google Maps. To be honest, it was a mess. It was difficult to manage as companies had multiple profiles and did not provide much help in terms of tech support and how to most efficiently use these tools collectively to connect with users.

It also didn’t help that many believe that Google + is somewhat of a ghost town – but joining a few of the Google + communities proves otherwise and is a great platform to share your online content.

Google My Business is Googles solution to this mess and is being billed as a platform for merchants to effectively manage their online presence on Google maps, Google +, and search.

Now back to the topic of this post – Why it is time to get serious about Google +. Even with its perceived flaws, Google + has proved to be beneficial for your brands online presence and for search engine optimization.

We all know that Google is the king when it comes to SEO, and for this reason alone, you cannot afford to continue to ignore Google +.

Here are some reasons why now is as good of a time as ever to get onboard with Google +:

Adding content to Google + will help get your content indexed faster.

There are a number of studies that show that there is a connection between number of +1s and search ranking and visibility.

With increased visibility through Google +, you can generate more traffic to your website and experience higher click through rates.

As an early adopter you will be well positioned to maximize the effectiveness of Google + as it evolves.

Even though social signals, like +1s, have not been found to have a direct impact on SEO and search results, they help to validate content and links, providing greater exposure for your content, which will benefit you from an SEO perspective. The more exposure you can generate for a post, the more likely that it will be shared, linked to, viewed, and the more traffic you will generate – All positive SEO effects.

This is exactly what Google + helps you to achieve and Google My Business will only make this easier to accomplish.